A CHILD OF A CRACKHEAD

by Shameek Speight

  “Yeah, you’re right. That nigga is tripping, but what we supposed to do?” Ace asked.

  “Yo, I have a plan.” Caesar replied.

  “Hop in.”

  “Hold on let me put this work in my car.” Ace walked down to his car and opened up the trunk and put the twelve ounces in it and locked it. He came back and hopped in the passenger seat and shut the door. “So, what’s your plan?”

  “Yo, you know J-Rock, that nigga on Pitkin Avenue?” Caesar said.

  “Yea, J-Rock has a team over there selling drugs there doing, but they aren’t making more money than us.” Ace replied.

  “Well, listen, I’m going to see if I can get J-Rock to handle Black Ice for us.”

  “Man your crazy. You know that nigga is scared to death of Black Ice. No one in their right mind around here would fuck with him.”

  “Listen, you got to stop thinking like that. Don’t you need more money for Lisa and the kids?” Caesar asked. As soon as Caesar said that, Ace tensed up. He’ll do anything for her and hated when a nigga acted like he wouldn’t.

  “Yo, don’t even bring Lisa and the kids name into this. Yes, I’m down. Let’s roll and find J-Rock.”

  “Alright, that’s what I’m talking about.” Caesar said and started the car and pulled off. He knew by saying Lisa’s name it would get Ace down with him. It was a low blow, but he had to push his buttons.

  He needed Ace’s help to run the business for a while, because he didn’t trust the young boys on the block to do so. But as soon as he found a nigga he could trust, he planned on killing Ace too. Caesar drove three blocks over and made a right and pulled in front of a building with young thugs hanging out in front of it selling crack. One of the boys was named Smoke. He was a tall slim cat who was only eighteen and ran the block for J-Rock. Smoke walked over to Caesar’s car window, “Yo what’s up? What you all doing over here. We don’t have any problems with you.” Smoke said while his hand rested on the gun in his waist band. He wanted no problems with Caesar and Ace, not so much as them. He could care less about killing them. He’ll put a bullet in their heads in a heartbeat, but it was Black Ice he feared. Shit the whole hood feared that crazy nigga. But, Caesar and Ace were part of his team and there would be hell to pay if someone killed them. Smoke wasn’t about to let a nigga come over and shoot him down like a dog. A man is a man, no matter what.

  “Yo, go get J-Rock for me and tell him I need to talk to him.” Caesar said while hanging out of the window of his car. He used the door to cover the cocked 9mm pistol in his hand.

  “Alright I’ll go see if he wants to talk to you.” Smoke replied while walking off and entering the building where all the young hustlers were at. All of their eyes glanced over on Caesar’s car. The young hustlers were leery of them. Caesar never really like Smoke and he was another nigga on his list to kill when he made it to the top.

  A middle built brown skin man came out of the building followed by Smoke and walked up to the car. “Yo, hop in the back seat, you and Smoke.” Caesar said.

  J-Rock looked nervously and

  wondered if he should be getting in the car with Caesar and Ace.

  “Yo, I’m not going to pull off. We can stay right in front of your building.”

  Caesar said. J-Rock hesitated and hopped in with Smoke. They were strapped so he was a feeling a little safer. J-Rock thought you could never just trust any nigga in the hood, especially a nigga that is crazy enough to run with Black Ice. “So, what the two of you want to talk to us about?” J-Rock asked with an attitude.

  “Listen, I know you want to make some more money than what your pulling on this little ass block. So, Ace and I have a deal for you.”

  “Ok, what kind of deal?” J-Rock asked listening with all ears. The talk of money always got his attention. Caesar smiled then looked at Ace sitting in the passenger seat.

  “It’s like this. Black Ice is falling off.

  That nigga is smoking crack hard and he’s losing his damn mind, whatever he had to begin with. He’s losing a lot of his body weight.” Caesar started explaining some stuff first.

  “Yeah, I heard that nigga is smoking that shit now. And he is looking kind of fucked up. But, what’s the point?” J-Rock asked.

  “My point is Ace and I will be taking over Black Ice’s business.”

  “Yeah right, like Black Ice is just going to hand over his business.” Smoke said butting in to the conversation.

  “I was talking to J-Rock, not you Smoke and the words I used was take over.

  And how are we going to do that you wonder? We need you, J-Rock, and some of your men to kill him and in return we’ll pay you fifteen thousand. Not only that we’ll give you the day-shift to sell crack in the Brownsville Projects every other week.”

  “Nigga, are you crazy? Is this some trick or something?” J-Rock asked. “Black Ice will kill us all just for talking about this shit.”

  “Naw nigga, that mother fucker is too busy smoking crack and looking for that bitch, Roxy. We can pull this off. I’m serious.” Caesar responded looking at J-Rock in his eyes. J-Rock knew then he was for real that this wasn’t any kind of trick.

  “Yo, you remember what happened to the last dude who tried to take over Black Ice’s business? That nigga, Lip from Riverhead Projects, and his men killed five of Black Ice’s workers. In return, Black Ice killed everybody. When he couldn’t find Lip’s ass, he kidnapped the nigga’s grandmother and mother and put the word on the street that he would let them go if Lip gave himself up to him. That fool Lip gave himself up to Black Ice. Black Ice duck taped him to a chair in one of his apartments and shot the fools grandmother in front of him. Then he raped his mother in front of him and emptied a clip in her. That wasn’t the worst part, Black Ice cut off both of Lip’s hands, tied them together with a piece of rope, and threw them up on the telephone lines. The project kids thought they were a pair of sneakers and left them just hanging there. When the cops finally noticed the hands up there, they took them down. In the hand’s there was a note that read,

  “If you ever try and take what are mines, I’ll take more than their hands.”

  A week later they found Lip’s body, but his head was gone. To this day, the cops have never found his head. Word on the street is Back Ice kept Lip’s head in one of his apartments with the rest of the pieces of body parts he took off his victims.”

  “Listen I know the fucking story, J-Rock. Are you down or what? The nigga isn’t the same. He’s falling off from smoking that shit.” Caesar said.

  “So what, you think that makes him less dangerous or more?” Smoke asked.

  “Fuck I’m down.” J-Rock replied while thinking about all the money he’d make selling drugs in the projects. “So, what’s the plan?”

  “Let’s give Black Ice another month and let him keep smoking himself to death.

  Then you and your men will come while Ace and I are talking business with him keeping him busy. So he won’t see it coming or hear anything to react to it.”

  “Alright I’m cool with that, but let me ask y’all one thing.” J-Rock said.

  “What?” Caesar asked.

  “Why don’t the two of you just kill him yourself?”

  “Because that nigga is high, but he’s not stupid. He doesn’t sleep on me and Ace.”

  “That’s what I thought.”

  “Alright I’ll get up with tow,” Caesar said and pulled off. “You see how east that went Ace?”

  “Yea, I see, but I hope we can pull everything off.” Ace said.

  “Don’t hope nigga. WE will there’s no room for doubt.”

  J-Rock and Smoke stood in front of their building watching Caesar’s car make its way down the block.

  “So, what you think, Smoke?” J-Rock asked.

  “Shit I think these fools are crazy to want to cross Black Ice.”

  “Yea, but if there right about him slipping and falling off, I think we can kill him.”

  “Yea and then kill Caesar and Ace�
��s ass and take over” Smoke snickered.

  “The whole mother fucking strap for ourselves,” J-Rock replied. “It sounds good to me. I never liked that pussy Caesar anyways. Cool let see how things fall out.”

  Chapter 11

  Michael stood and watched his father sleep on the black living room couch. He was surprised to see his father sleeping.

  Something his father didn’t do much of since he started smoking that funny smelling stuff. Michael looked down at his father’s feet and saw the glass pipe and some empty small jars. He remembered seeing him one time take the white stuff out of the jars to smoke it. A devilish smile crossed Michael’s face, he slowly crept over to where his father was sleeping and bent down and picked up the glass pipe and the four empty jars. He ran back into his bedroom.

  Ten minutes later, he came back into the living room and carefully placed the glass pipe back on the floor next to his father’s feet.

  Black Ice jumped up out of his sleep with a disgusted look on his face. He looked around the living room and saw Michael standing in front of him just staring at him.

  Michael gave Black Ice a sinister look.

  Chills went down Black Ice’s back as he looked into his son’s eyes. There wasn’t much that scared Black Ice, but he could see complete evil in his son’s eyes. The only time he ever saw a pair of eyes like that was when he looked in the mirror.

  “Yo, what the fuck are you looking at? Go in your fucking room.”

  Michael just stood there and looked at Black Ice. When he was ready he turned around and walked away while giving him an evil glare.

  Black Ice thought that he was going to have to kill that boy one day. He reached in his pocket and pulled out to small jars of crack. He looked around on the couch for his crack pipe. He noticed it was on the floor by his feet. He bent over and picked it up and stuffed the pipe full of crack. He took out his lighter and held it to the end of the pipe and inhaled deeply. As soon as he inhaled, he knew something was wrong. He could feel the inside of his throat being ripped to shreds. The feeling traveled down to his chest, then to his stomach. “Aw shit.”

  Black Ice gasped as he repeatedly coughed trying to het air. He felt his insides ripping apart what felt like sand in his mouth. He started to cough up blood. He used his hand to cover his mouth to stop the blood from flying all over the place. He tried to focus his eyes and couldn’t believe what he saw.

  He had coughed up little tiny pieces of glass.

  “What the fuck?” Black Ice yelled out and coughed up more blood. He collapsed on the floor.

  Rachel ran out of the bedroom and into the living room after hearing her man gasping for air. Rachel looked down and saw Black Ice on the floor covered in his own blood. He was still coughing up blood and holding his neck. “Oh my God baby what’s wrong?” She bent down to help him and held his head in her lap. “Speak to me, what’s wrong?” Rachel asked again with tears drawing up in her eyes.

  Black Ice was unable to answer her.

  IT was too difficult for him to breathe and all he could do was cough up blood. Black Ice turned his head that was in Rachel’s lap too see that his son was standing right there.

  Looking him in the eyes with an evil smile across his face. Black Ice coughed up more blood. “You little fucker” He coughed as the words slowly came out of his mouth before he passed out and his world went dark.

  Michael watched with amazement as his father coughed up blood and passed out, but he couldn’t understand why his mother was crying and trying to help him.

  “Mommy, don’t cry it will be over soon just let him die.”

  “Shut up, shut up, Michael. You sound like your father.” Rachel jumped up with tears running down her face and ran to the telephone and called 911.

  Michael wondered why she was

  helping him after all the times he beat them.

  He did this for her. Earlier when his father was asleep and he took the glass pipe and the jars back into his bedroom, he put the jars into a sock and used his sneaker to crush and grind the glass into tiny little pieces. He stuffed the pieces into both ends of the glass pipe and placed it back on the floor next to his father’s feet where he found it.

  “Mommy, let him die.”

  “Stop fucking talking that way”

  Rachel demanded.

  Michael never heard his mother cuss at him. So, he knew she was mad. He could see the tears in his mother’s eyes and it made him cry. “I don’t understand mommy.” Still not comprehending why his mother still loved his father after all the beatings they received from him.

  Chapter 12

  Black Ice woke up in a panic. He could see where he was at. His throat and chest burned. He moved his hands to his face to feel tubes in his nose and mouth. He yanked them out. He yelled in pain. He looked around the room to notice he was in a hospital bed just as Rachel walked into the hospital room. She was followed in by a tall white man, a doctor. “Well I see you’re up.

  That’s great.”

  “What’s going on?” Black Ice asked in a faint whisper. His throat was very sore.

  “Mr. Ice we had to pump your

  stomach and throat. You had tiny pieces of glass that were ripping apart your insides.

  You’re lucky your wife called 911 to get you to the hospital on time. If she would have waited any longer the glass would have cut your wind pipe so bad it would have stopped your breathing permanently. I’m not about to ask you how the glass got in your system, because I found traces of cocaine in your blood. Just be grateful to your wife.” And with that being said, the doctor turned his back and walked out of the hospital room.

  “Thank you, Doctor Paul” Rachel said.

  “You’re welcome young lady.”

  Rachel walked over to Black Ice’s bed, “Baby, I’m happy to see that you’re up.

  The doctor said you could leave in the morning.” Rachel placed a kiss on his lips.

  Black Ice looked at his woman in her eyes. Time’s like these reminded him why he loved her so much. It didn’t matter how much he beat her or mistreated her. She was always there for him, even more the reason why he’s got to get her to smoke crack with him so he would never lose her. He felt that would keep her in his life forever. Little did he know Rachel would stay with him without being trapped for good or for bad, she just proved it by saving his life, but he was too blind to see it.

  “Baby, how did you inhale all that glass?” she asked.

  “I got an idea on how.” Black Ice flashed back to the evil smile he saw on his son’s face.

  “Well, I hope you stop smoking that stuff and things will be different”. Rachel said.

  “Oh things will be different.” He said in a sarcastic voice that Rachel didn’t catch.

  “I love you and I will see you when you come home.” Rachel said while hugging and kissing him good-bye. She left the hospital praying that things would be different for her family. She hoped things would be different, but she just didn’t know how.

  Chapter 13

  The next day, Black Ice left

  Brookdale Hospital. He walked up to the apartment and put the key in his door. When he walked in, he could see Rachel in the kitchen hot combing her hair. Once he reached the living room, he looked down to see Michael drawing a picture on the floor by the couch. Michael stopped drawing and glanced up at this father and went back to drawing his picture. Black Ice couldn’t believe his eyes. His son just tried to kill him yesterday and didn’t even break a sweat or look at all nervous when he saw him.

  Black Ice thought that little nigga is evil, but he knew he could only blame himself. It was his own blood that was flowing through his son’s veins. But, then he thought fuck that, this little nigga tried to kill him and he was going to have to teach him a lesson.

  Black Ice walked back into the bedroom and returned with his leather belt wrapped in his hands. Rachel looked at the belt and knew what time it was. “What are you doing?

  You just came home from the hos
pital and you already want to start something.”

  Rachel shouted.

  “This has nothing to do with you.”

  Black Ice said as he walked towards his son.

  Rachel jumped up from the kitchen chair where she was hot combing her hair and ran in between Black Ice and Michael with her arms spread wide open trying to block his way. “Rachel, I’m only going to tell you once, move!” he yelled.

  “What for?” she asked.

  “This little nigga tried to kill me yesterday. It was him who put that glass in my pipe.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Because I do, now move”

  “No, my son wouldn’t have done

  what you’re accusing him of.”

  Michael looked up from the floor where he was drawing and watched his mother and father argue. He wished silently that his father did die yesterday. Just then Black Ice took the belt he had wrapped around his hand and put it around Rachel’s neck to choke her. “Didn’t I tell your ass to move?” Black Ice said while clenching his teeth. Rachel gasped for air and tried to swing her arms to get free of his grip, but it was no use. Black Ice squeezed tighter.

  “Daddy stop, please, please stop!” Michael cried. At the sight of his mother’s arms swinging around like a dead rag doll. Black Ice’s grip was too much. As Rachel fell to the floor passing out from the clench around her neck, she thought ‘I gave him life and he is going to take mine away’.

  Black Ice released his grip and watched Rachel body fall to the floor with dead weight. Michael crawled to his mother and put his hands on her face. “Mommy, mommy sit up” He cried. As soon as Michael said those words, he felt the belt go across his back.

  “Your little ass wanted to try to kill me!” Black Ice questioned Michael as he repeatedly stuck his son with the belt across his little body. Michael cried and rolled up into a ball to try to protect himself.

  “Mommy, help me!” he cried.